Former Baylor football player Shawn Oakman says he wants to try to enter the NFL after being acquitted of sexual assault.
“I want to play football at the highest level and just really finally get my chance,” Oakman told KWTX-TV on Friday.
Now 26, Oakman says he has been working out and is in good shape.
A defensive end, Oakman was Baylor’s career leader in sacks and was a potential second- or third-round pick when he was arrested in April 2016, two weeks before the NFL draft, and accused of raping another student.
A jury in Waco found Oakman not guilty on Thursday.
In January 2013, a different woman had accused Oakman of physically assaulting her, according to a police report. She told officers she didn’t want to pursue a criminal case, and no charges were ever filed.
Oakman had come to Baylor from Penn State, where he had been dismissed from the program in 2012 after he was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, harassment and retail theft stemming from an incident in which he allegedly tried to steal a sandwich from a convenience store and was aggressive with a female store clerk by grabbing her wrist.
Neither incident was presented to jurors as part of Oakman’s criminal trial.
Two other former Baylor football players — Tre’Von Armstead and Myke Chatman — were charged with sexual assault in 2017 and are awaiting trial, and former Baylor defensive end Sam Ukwuachu is still awaiting a final decision on his appeal of his sexual assault conviction in 2015.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.